


Next to you (the sky is more blue)

by Enj0ltaiRe



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, California, M/M, Summer Love, a lot of songs references, age gap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-08
Updated: 2018-03-08
Packaged: 2019-03-28 18:11:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13909446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enj0ltaiRe/pseuds/Enj0ltaiRe
Summary: It's a brand new startA dream come trueIn Malibu





	Next to you (the sky is more blue)

**_June_ **

 

“Remember to put your sunscreen on, sweetie. Your delicate skin is not used to this kind of sun.” Sonia Kaspbrak called from the kitchen. She checked to make sure she had the wallet in her purse and she fixed her hair in the window’s reflection. It used to be a nice shade of honey blonde, but with the years passing by it had withered to a pale ash-like shade.

Eddie thought she should have dyed it, but Sonia didn’t trust hairdressers. She thought they were sharks hungry for money that demanded to be paid to do what she could have done by herself.

He sighed and tried to remember where he had put the sunscreen bottle. He was still trying to get used to his new drawers and his new spaces, but hell, it wasn’t easy, especially considering that Eddie had never had to get used to new drawers and spaces. He had always been perfectly fine with his same, good, old drawers and spaces.

People say that the exciting part of a move is decorating the new rooms and find new places for all your stuff, but that was what Eddie had hated the most about the whole thing. He couldn’t find anything, not even the things he was sure he had left in a specific place. It was frustrating, and it was only a constant reminder that he wasn’t home.

Sonia and Eddie Kaspbrak had left Derry, their hometown, in Eddie’s late father’s car on a rainy morning. It was the end of May, which meant that the air was thick with humidity and Eddie’s wavy hair was damp and sticking to his forehead and the back of his neck.

It had been an infinite trip. Coast to coast across the country, stopping only when it was necessary and listening to a radio station that only played 60’ music.

Eddie thought he was going to go completely insane before they even get to arrive.

Malibu. A beach city in Los Angeles County known for its beautiful, sandy beaches and surfers and parties.

Eddie had never set a foot on the sand before, let alone surfed or been to a beach party full of tanned jocks.

He was used to the weird comfort that only your hometown could give you. No matter how uncomfortable it made him feel, it was better than this alienating new reality. In Derry he knew where to go if he wanted to get the best ice cream, he knew which streets he should have avoided, the best places to hide when he was having a blue day and, most importantly, he knew exactly where each one of his memories came from. He knew where he had learned how to ride a bike, he remembered where he was when he had broke his left arm and he could have pinpointed the exact spot where his dad had let him put his hands on the car’s steering wheel for the first time.

Derry might have been a shithole town, filled up with racist and homophobes and sexists assholes, almost as if you had to be a jerk to get the permission of residence, but it was were every single one of Eddie’s memories came from. It was where Eddie came from. It was where Eddie had learned how to take a beating and how to throw a punch back, it was where he had found out who he was when he had kissed a boy for the first time. It was where he had lost his dad.

Frank Kaspbrak was probably the nicest man anyone would have ever had the pleasure of knowing. He was kind and gentle, loving and loyal. He had taught Eddie how to dance by making him step on his feet and spinning him slowly around the living room while a very amused Sonia kept reminding him that Eddie wasn’t a little girl. Frank had told her that there was no point in teaching girls how to dance if no one taught boys as well, which made her shake her head fondly and call them both to the table for dinner.

Frank always bought flowers for his wife for Valentine’s day and their anniversaries. Frank knew how to always give the right advice at the right time.

He died when Eddie was 17.

He was in class when the principal had called him in his office, saying that he had just received a call from his mother. By the look on the man’s face and his mother’s voice through the phone, he didn’t have to be told to know that something horribly wrong had happened.

He had spent days crying himself to sleep, screaming in the pillow, and hours staring at the bathroom’s tiled wall, as the stream of water above him ran cold. How could it have been fair? How could his father be dead while filthy bastards like Henry Bowers and Patrick Hockstetter, two of the worst human beings on the face of Earth, were still safe and sound, bullying some poor kid into a dirty, empty alley?

It wasn’t fair, and Eddie was angry.

He had been angry for a whole year before the anger turned into a numb, constant sadness.

When he turned 19, he hadn’t even applied to college yet. He just didn’t see the point on moving on with his life and planning is future if all it took to destroy a life was a car that wouldn’t stop with the red light.

Sonia had changed as well. She had started eating way too much, probably in the attempt of filling up that huge, black hole that pierced her chest. Then, she had started worrying too much.

Suddenly, Eddie couldn’t even leave the house if he didn’t tell her exactly where he was going and when he was going to be back. She was so haunted by the fear of losing him as well that she had started making up fake allergies and illnesses to keep him at home with her.

Malibu was going to be a new start.

At least, that was what Sonia kept repeating, maybe more to herself than to Eddie.

They had packed up their stuff, said goodbye and left. Left the house where Eddie was born, where he had grew up. Left the graveyard where Frank was resting. Left the cold hearted, hypocrite town of Derry.

“Are you ready? You’re taking forever!” Sonia yelled from the kitchen, which made Eddie groan and slam the top drawer of his wardrobe closed.

“I can’t find the fucking sunscreen!” He called back, stomping his foot to the floor in frustration. Why did it have to be so goddam hard? Why couldn’t the sunscreen be where he had seen it the last time? Why did it have to be so fucking sunny in Malibu? Why did the sun even exist?

“It’s between your swimming trunks.” Sonia said, and Eddie rolled his eyes.

“It’s not there, I’ve already looked.”

“Do I have to come upstairs?”

Eddie folded his arms on his chest in irritation and pride. “Help yourself!”

What followed where the stomps of Sonia’s feet on the staircase and her deep sighs. Eddie watched as she made her way inside his bedroom, pulled the bottom drawer open and moved a pair of folded, red swimming trunks to the side.

And of course, right under them, there was the fucking, bloody sunscreen.

“It wasn’t there before.” Eddie muttered, refusing to meet her eyes.

Sonia shook her head and handed the bottle to him with a deep sigh. “Of course it wasn’t. It just decided to go out and have a walk without you noticing. Oh, and coming back as well, obviously.” She said with a teasing tone of voice, which was something Eddie wasn’t used to anymore.

“Whatever.” Eddie shrugged.

Sonia squeezed some lotion in her hand and rubbed it against Eddie’s cheeks, making him groan. “Mom…”

“You want to get a sunburn, Eddie bear? You must be careful.” She reminded him, stroking her thumbs over his freckled cheeks, spreading the cream across them. “There.”

“Can you stop kneading my face?” Eddie pleaded, pulling away from her grasp and wiping his cheeks with the back of his hand. “It smells like chemicals.” He pointed out, smelling it on his skin.

“That’s how you know it’s good. I don’t want you to use that biologic nonsense.”

“It’s good for the environment, though.” Eddie pointed out, wrinkling his nose at the intense smell.

“The environment isn’t going to prevent my boy from getting a sunburn.”

 

* * *

 

The house they had bought with Frank’s life savings was near Surfrider Beach, so called because it was one of the best spots of the whole coast for surfers. Eddie didn’t know how to surf, but he found it enjoyable to just sit there on the sand and watch them jump on their boards like they were born to do so.

The house was near the sea, but surrounded by stores, restaurants and arcades. It was a lively place, Eddie could give it that much. It made him want to hang around rather than spend his days lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

The streets were busy with kids running around, teenagers on rollerblades and tourists with cameras around their necks. The sun was high in the sky and the palm trees looked like they were almost trying to touch it. Eddie had never saw trees that high before.

Malibu was nice, Eddie couldn’t deny that. It smelled like fresh air, salty water and candy cotton if you walked close to one of the hundred fairs that there were around. The people were, somehow, always cheerful. Eddie had never seen so many people smiling all at once, not even during the Sunday mass back in Derry.

And Derry got off on Sunday masses.

“ _Wise men say only fools rush in, but I can’t help falling in love with you_.” Eddie turned his head to the right, where a little crowd of people was standing. He knew the song, it was one of the songs his dad always played or hummed when he was in a good mood.

He gently elbowed a couple of people to get to see who was singing, gaining a glare and a huff.

_“Shall I stay? Would it be a sin if I can’t help falling in love with you?_ ” It was a boy singing, a boy that must have been a little older than Eddie.

He was wearing a pink and yellow Hawaiian shirt that was hanging open on his hairless chest, a pair of light wash jeans that barely brushed his knees and different Vans: one had palms leaves printed on it, the other was striped. He had the most unruly black curls Eddie had ever seen, a pair of thick rimmed glasses pushed back on his freckled nose and the goofiest smile on his lips.

And he was playing a freaking ukulele.

And he was freaking incredible at it.

“ _Like the river flows surely to the sea, darling so it goes: some things were meant to be._ ” The boy sang, smiling wide at the crowd. Eddie blinked a couple of times when their eyes met, waiting for him to look away, but he didn’t. He just kept singing and looking at him. “ _Take my hand. Take my whole life too. Cause I can’t help falling in love with you_.”

Eddie felt himself blush like a fourteen years old under that boy’s stare.

_Some things were meant to be._

The people around them were singing along with the lyrics, tapping their feet to the ground in rhythm with the notes played by the ukulele.

He barely noticed that the boy had stopped singing. He was snapped out of his thoughts when everyone around him clapped and someone threw a couple of coins or a dollar bill in the boy’s sack.

“Thank you all so much for your kindness, ladies and gentlemen! Richie Tozier is my name and annoy you with my covers is my game!” He said, bowing in almost a dramatic way and making the people chuckle. “Donations are accepted and very much encouraged!” He grinned as the crowd started to disperse.

Eddie was still frozen on the spot. He watched as the boy, _Richie_ , knelt down and started putting the money he had collected away. He couldn’t even check his pockets to see if he had a couple of quarters, he couldn’t really move at all.

Eddie remembered feeling like he couldn’t move in only a few occasion in his entire life: when he was eight and he broke his arm, he had thought that he was going to break it even more if he did anything different than just lie there, staring up at the sky with his bike discarded next to him. He felt like he couldn’t move when he had been told that his father was dead, so he just sat on a chair, staring right in front of him with a blank expression of shock on his face. Once, when he was eleven, he had a nightmare about a clown that left him paralyzed in the bed, eyes wide open in the darkness of his room and limbs stiff from fear.

They were all bad memories, though. In every single occasion, he had felt lost, hurt or scared.

He wasn’t feeling lost, hurt or scared as the boy, no, _Richie_ , stood up and swung his sack on his shoulder, grinning so bright that he almost put the sun to shame. His teeth were white, not perfectly regular in shape, but bigger in the front in almost a funny, adorable way.

Thinking about it, Eddie maybe felt a little lost.

“Hi.” Richie said, holding the ukulele with one hand and brushing some stray lock of hair away from his forehead. “Did you enjoy the show?” He asked cheekily.

His accent was definitely Californian, Eddie noticed, but also not quite, because it was almost as if he was trying to mix every accent in the world together.

And miserably failed.

“Eddie, what are you doing? Come on, let’s go.” He jumped when his mother grabbed his wrist and started to tug him behind her with an annoyed sigh. “I almost got to the store before I noticed you weren’t there. You gave me a heart attack.”

Eddie turned his head and Richie raised his hand, waving, with a big smile on his lips.

 

* * *

 

If he had started walking down that street at the same hour every day since that afternoon, it was a complete coincidence. He enjoyed the afternoon sun because it wasn’t as violent as the midday sun, and that was it.

He most certainly wasn’t trying to get to see Richie, the ukulele boy, again, because that would have been childish and naive of him, because he definitely wasn’t crushing on a singing boy he saw once and whom he hadn’t even said a word to.

After five days of walking up and down Cross Creek Road, pretending he was just headed to Starbucks (and therefore drinking a worryingly excessive amount of iced coffee), he gave up. Maybe Richie didn’t even live there, maybe he was just a tourist on a road trip that had decided to earn a couple of bucks by thrumming his stupid ukulele on the sidewalk.

He paid for his nth iced coffee (with a splash of vanilla syrup and whipped cream on top) and headed to the beach. It was summer, after all. He had no intention on spending it by walking on concrete instead of soft, thin sand. He took his flip flops off as soon as he walked down on the shore, holding them with his free hand and taking sips of his drink every other minute.

Beaches in Malibu were extraordinarily huge. They were long and wide and surprisingly clean despite being usually very crowded.

Before moving to Malibu, Eddie had never seen the sea, let alone the ocean. He was familiar with splashing around the water and diving because there was an old quarry in Derry, where his friends and him used to go when summer came around. It was a quiet place where they could spend entire days without being disturbed. It didn’t smell as nice as the ocean though: the ocean filled the air up with a nice, salty breeze that he could taste on his lips if he licked them. The quarry smelled like mud and a little bit like mold.

Eddie remembered jumping in the water from the highest cliff with his best friends, thinking that there could have been fire beneath them and he still would have jumped. When he was around Bill, Mike and Ben he felt invincible.

He missed his friends, and he missed not being able to talk to them whenever he felt like it. Back in Derry, all it took him was a round of calls to gather them and meet up. From the other side of the country, though, considering the time zone, the skype calls weren’t as frequent as he had expected them to be.

He didn’t blame his friends for being busy and enjoying their summer. He couldn’t, really. He knew they didn’t mean to disappear, and he knew that they loved and missed him just as much as he loved and missed them. They were all in college, they all had their study to do and they all wanted to enjoy being back home before they had to go back to campus.

No, Eddie couldn’t blame them for not being the first thought in their minds, he wasn’t that selfish. After all, he was the one who had left.

He sat down on the sand when he finally got to his favorite spot, holding his coffee in one hand and digging in his backpack with the other.

Surfrider Beach was a place he never imagined he would have loved. People couldn’t even swim in that part of the sea, as the big, red “warning” sign read.  It was just for surfers and people who wanted to look at surfers from the shore. There was something extremely fascinating about the way they could stand on their boards and ride the waves. If Eddie stopped to think about it, it was almost as if they were dominating the ocean. Almost as if they were challenging it.

Eddie wondered if he could have ever learned how to ride and dominate the ocean like they did. It must have felt good.

Eddie hadn’t felt good in a long time. 

There was no way, anyway, that his mother was going to buy him a surfboard. No way on earth. He could already hear her screech about how dangerous surf was and “sharks, Eddie! You could end up eaten by a shark!”

Maybe his father would have let him try. Maybe he would have even taught him how to stand without falling. Maybe his mother would have watched them from the shore, waving and smiling at them.

Maybe.

“Watch out!” Before Edde could even process what was going on, a ball landed right on him, spilling his iced coffee all over his baby blue tank top and making him gap in surprise. “Shit!”

He turned his head and saw a girl with red hair running towards him. She was wearing shots and a cropped tank top that gave Eddie a display of what the bikini she was wearing underneath looked like. She was pretty. Actually, she was gorgeous. She had a lot of freckles and bright green eyes, her wavy hair was pulled up in a messy bun and her knees were covered in sand. Eddie wondered how much sunscreen she must have rubbed on herself to keep her fair skin from getting burned.

“Fuck, I’m sorry.” She sighed, rubbing the back of her neck.

“It’s okay, it’s nothing.” Eddie said, gesturing with his hand in a dismissive way. He really didn’t mind. “It’s just cold coffee.”

“Still. It sucks. We didn’t mean to.” Eddie looked over his shoulder and a boy about her age with blonde curls and his hands on his narrow hips was waiting for her to come back. “Do you maybe want to join us? We’re playing volleyball.” He said with a kind, slightly apologetic smile on her face.

“I should go home, anyway. It’s almost dinner time.” He said, standing up and picking his stuff up with him. “But thank you for the offer.”

“Are you sure? Our other friend is going to be here any minute now, so we could play beach volley, you know? There’s a net not far from here.” The girl offered again. Eddie couldn’t help but smile back at her.

“Maybe next time.” He promised, well aware that it was what people used to say instead of no. A gentler way of saying ‘not going to happen’.

But yeah. Maybe next time.

The girl grinned and nodded, picking the ball up. “Alright then. Sorry again, bye!” She ran back to her friend and Eddie watched as they started playing again for a couple of seconds.

He loved playing volleyball. Despite being the shortest boy in his PE class, he was even pretty good at it.

So yeah. Maybe next time.

Eddie left his backpack beside the front door and his flip flops right next to it. The sun had just started setting, which meant that dinner was going to be ready in any minute. He went to the bathroom and washed his hands before he joined his mother in the kitchen, which smelled like chicken and roasted vegetables.

“Where have you been, Eddie Bear? What happened to your clothes?” Sonia frowned, holding the pan as she filled the plates up.

“There were some guys playing volleyball on the beach and I got hit by accident.” Eddie explained, sitting down and filling his glass with orange juice.

“Are you hurt?” She immediately asked. “Teens these days! Didn’t their parents teach them how to behave?”

“It’s nothing, mom, really. I just spilled my coffee.”

“You need to be more careful, Eddie bear. It’s a wild world out there.” Sonia warned him, and Eddie hummed, sinking his fork into a roasted potato and thinking about the times when she let him run up and down the streets with his friends and get his knees bruised.

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

 

* * *

 

_Like the river flows surely to the sea, darling so it goes_

_Some things are meant to be_

_Take my hand, take my whole life too_

_For I can’t help falling in love with you_

Eddie smiled at the lyrics as he laid down on his yellow beach towel, wearing his red swimming trunks and his headphones.

There was something oddly pleasurable about being alone on the beach, lying in the sun with music in his years, Eddie noticed. It was like floating in another dimension. Being far far away from all the worries and all the bad thoughts.

He sat up when he started to feel his back a little cranky and pushed his sunglasses back in his hair, rubbing his eyes to adapt them to the light and taking a long sip from his bottle of water.

The waves were high that day, which meant that there were a lot of surfers around and, by consequence, a lot of curious people watching them. Eddie could have easily started following the jumps and the moves of the best ones, but his attention was immediately dragged towards a guy who struggled to even lay flat on his stomach on the board.

It was probably the worst surfer Eddie had ever seen in action since he got there, which he found extremely amusing. He had started to believe that Californian people (at least those who lived by the coast) surfed their way out of their mothers’ vaginas, but that guy was the living proof that no, not really.

Unless he wasn’t Californian?

Eddie put his sunglasses back on to take a better look and, he wasn’t quite sure, but from that distance he really looked like Richie, the ukulele boy, perpetually falling right into the water. Eddie recognised his dark hair, his long and lanky limbs and, if that wasn’t enough, the guy was wearing swimming trunks with bright pink flamingos printed all over them.

_Some things are meant to be._

Eddie could feel his heart beating ten times faster than it was before. His teeth sunk into his bottom lip and then a laugh escaped his mouth.

Richie had finally managed to stand up, looking like a baby deer with an extra leg, before a wave crashed right on top of him, making him roll to the seafront with the grace of a beached tuna fish.

Maybe the laugh came out louder than he had intended it to be, because Richie looked up and met his gaze, freezing Eddie on the spot. For a second, he was afraid that he had offended him, but then Richie grinned and stood up, getting out of the water with a little run.

What Richie hadn’t took into consideration, was that the surfboard was still secured around his ankle, and Richie _definitely_ didn’t remember it, because it resisted and Richie fell on his face on the sand.

Eddie laughed again, covering his mouth with his hand and watching as Richies stood up once again, looking very much like a breaded cutlet.

Richie Tozier, the ukulele boy, was, 100 percent, the most embarrassing and awkward and clumsy person Eddie had ever laid his eyes on.

_Would it be a sin if I can’t help falling in love with you?_

Richie signed him to hold on a second, as if he was worried that Eddie was going to disappear, and dived back into the ocean to was the sand off of himself. When he finally got out again, he shook his head to keep his hair from flattening on his forehead and around his cheeks and ran back outside, this time holding his surfboard under his arm, looking like the pro he really wasn’t.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone less graceful than you.” Eddie chuckled when Richie was in earshot. “No offence.” He added, and Richie grinned.

“Non taken!” He said cheerfully, dropping to his knees right in front of Eddie’s beach towel. “We’ve met before, haven’t we?”

Eddie pushed his sunglasses back again, and gave him a small nod. “I was in the crowd during your gig on the sidewalk last week.” He said. Did it make him sound weird? Was it weird that he remembered it?

“Oh right! You’re the cute boy.” Richie clapped his hands together, grinning even wider. “Of course I remember you! Didn’t think you were the type that would make fun of people for their poor sport abilities.”

“I'm not. Not usually. But you’re pretty shit at surfing. I’m not even sure you can call what you were doing surf.” Eddie teased, making him laugh.

Eddie had once read about a theory  that said that the sound of the laugh of those you admire and love the most sounds like pearls rolling down a marble staircase.

He wondered if Richie’s laugh could ever sound like pearls on a marble staircase, being as loud as it was.

“You’re feisty, I like it.” Richie said, holding his hand out. “I’m Richard, but everyone just calls me Richie.”

Eddie stretched out his own hand, shaking Richie’s. “Edward.”

“Like Edward Cullen?” Richie immediately asked, making Eddie’s eyebrows shoot up.

“Oh my god, You’re ridiculous.”

“I’ll just call you Eds.” Richie shrugged, and Eddie wrinkled his nose.

“Actually, it’s Eddie.” He pointed out, as their hands kept shaking between them.

“Eds is a nickname.”

“ _Eddie_ is a nickname, dumbass.”

Richie chuckled, without letting go of Eddie’s hand. “But Eds is short for Eddie.”

Eddie rolled his eyes, killing the smile that was threatening to curve his lips. There was no way on Earth he was going to admit that he loved the sound of _Eds_ coming out of Richie’s mouth.

It felt like being baptised again. It felt like leaving the heavy backpack filled up with his past and trauma behind and being given the chance to have another identity, another life, another chance.

_Eds_.

_Some things are meant to be._

“Whatever, you’re weird.” Eddie said, taking his hand back, bending his knees and hugging them to his chest.

“That’s a compliment.” Richie smiled, running his now free hand through his damp curls.

“How is ‘weird’ a compliment?”

“It’s the opposite of ‘ordinary’. Would you ever want to be described as ‘ordinary’?”

Eddie thought about it for a second before he finally shrugged. “I guess not.”

“Exactly. So being weird is good. Means you’re not ordinary.”

Eddie couldn’t help but smile at that. Being around Richie felt like a breath of fresh air. He was just as he had expected him to be: lively, cheerful and loud. Really loud.

“I’ve never seen you around before. Are you on holiday?” Richie asked, crossing his legs and sitting down properly in front of Eddie.

“I moved here with my mother a couple of weeks ago, actually.” Eddie fidgeted with the hem of his beach towel, looking up at Eddie. “It’s weird around here, different from where I come from.”

“Why? Were you come from?” Richie asked, tilting his head to the side and looking like a curious cat.

“Derry. It’s a city in Maine.”

“Holy fuck, it’s like on the other side of the world.” Richie gaped, making Eddie chuckle.

“Just of the country. But yeah. Feels like the other side of the world.”

 

* * *

 

“You can’t possibly be serious, Richie!” Eddie protested, anchoring his feet to the ground to resist as Richie pulled him.

“Don’t you trust me?” Richie asked, teasingly, looking at Eddie’s with a wide, amused grin.

“Absolutely not! I’ve seen you on a surfboard. You’re gonna end up drowning me.” He pointed out, breaking free from Richie’s grasp and ending up falling back on the sand.

“Come on, Eds, it’s going to be funny.” Richie pleaded him, laying the board on the water. “For me?” Richie pouted, legitimately _pouted_ , like a little boy asking his mom for a lollipop at the store.

Eddie looked up at him, feeling something in between being annoyed and amused.

He would have never expected that Richie was going to become such a persistent presence in his life. Since the day they met and talked, they had hardly spent a single moment apart from each other.

It was like having a friend again, someone to share adventures and laughs with, but, at the same time, it wasn’t. Eddie couldn’t quite find the right words to explain what he felt. Being around Richie made him feel a little silly, but in a good way. It made him want to laugh a little louder and run a little faster. It made him want to spend the time in the water instead of on the shore and it made him want to eat candies and rainbow stripes instead of freshly chopped vegetables.

It was like having a friend and something more at the same time.

Mike, Ben and Bill had never looked at Eddie the way Richie did. More than once, Eddie had caught Richie starting at him while he wasn’t looking. Richie’s eyes lit up every time they met Eddie’s. Eddie’s heart always beat a little faster whenever Richie swung his arm around his shoulders.

It was like having a friend, but not quite.

“Fine.” Eddie sighed. He stood up and followed richie to the seafront.

Richie bent down to tie the surfboard to his ankle and then dived in the water, shaking his head once he broke the surface again. Eddie watched him with fascination, blinking and feeling his cheeks warmer.

But maybe it was just the sun.

Eddie ran in the water after him and they ended up on each side of the surfboard, looking at each other and giggling like fools. It felt nice.

“Your freckles keep getting darker.” Richie pointed out, reaching out with one hand to poke his nose. “I like them. By the end of the summer you’ll look like a dalmatian.”

“I hope no one will skin me alive and make a jacket out of me then.”

“Gross.” Richie laughed. “Come on.” He hopped on the board, straddling it and turned his head to look at Eddie.

He sighed and braced himself, taking a deep breath and swinging his leg over it, sitting down behind Richie. “What now?”

His arms found their way around Richie’s thin waist. From that close, Eddie could see a million of freckles scattered all over Richie’s tanned shoulders and back. He raised a hand and started tracing them with his fingertips, drawing imaginary constellations between them.

“Now we row.”

The ocean was calm, therefore Surfrider Beach was quite empty. The sun was up in the sky and Richie had managed to turn and look at Eddie without falling.

Eddie considered it a great victory for him.

The surfboard was flat and stable, keeping them afloat. It was hot, but the ocean’s breeze washed over them every other minute, refreshing them. It was peaceful. Eddie felt as calm, relaxed and comfortable.

Which was unusual for him.

“I’m glad you moved here.”

“Why?”

“Because if you were on holiday you were going to leave.” Richie replied easily, smiling.

_Almost like having a friend, but not quite._

“You’ve only known me for three days. Maybe you’ll end up hating me.”

“That’s impossible.” Richie said, shaking his head and splashing Eddie with the droplets of water that fell from his hair.

“Nothing is impossible.”

“Me hating you is.”

 

* * *

 

“You’re always out these days.” Sonia said, a little bitterly, as she dropped an egg and two sausages down on Eddie’s plate. “I barely see you anymore.”

“I made a friend.” Eddie said, and a smile curved his lips before he could help it. “He’s name is Richie, he works at the record store every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning.” Eddie explained, glancing up at her.

“Oh, so that’s why you’re still here. Your friend is busy.”

Eddie shrugged and looked at the clock that was pinned to the wall, counting down the hours before Richie’s shift ended.

“I have fun with him.” Eddie simply said, swallowing down a mouthful of eggs.

“What does he do?”

There it was, Sonia’s dear old questioning.

“He’s a college student. He’s home for the summer.”

“How old is he?”

“22.”

“What!?” Sonia screeched, and her eyes went almost comically wide. “22!?”

“I’m 19, mom! He’s not that older than me.” Eddie reasoned, sighing and rubbing his eyes.

“He’s an adult.” Sonia said, throwing her arms to the air. “You should find friends your age.”

“But I like Richie!” Eddie protested, not really sure about _how_ he liked Richie.

“You’re staying inside today, Eddie. End of the story.”

“But I’ve told him I was going to pick him up from work!” Eddie insisted, pushing the plate aside. “He’ll be waiting for me.”

“Then he’ll wait.” Sonia deadpanned, putting the pan in the sink and lettin the water was away the oil. “He won’t die, you know?”

“But this is so unfair, mom. I want to see him.” Eddie looked up at her with wide, pleading eyes. “ _Please_.”

“Enough, Eddie. I needed you in anyway. We need to organize the garage.”

Eddie knew that there was nothing he could have said or done to convince his mother to let him go. Suddenly, he felt like an idiot. He really should have asked Richie for his number, but the fact was that it didn’t felt necessary.

It felt way more necessary now.

He spent the whole morning and early afternoon emptying the last boxes and piling the others in the garage with his mother. They were mainly boxes full of his father’s stuff. They both didn’t want to leave it behind, but they didn’t even want to have Frank’s things all over the new house. They moved out from the old one for a reason.

So that was what his father was: a picture framed in the living room and a pile of boxes in the garage.

“I’ve made some fresh orange juice.” Sonia announced, offering Eddie a glass with a smile on her lips. “Vitamin C. Great for your health.”

“Thanks, mom.” Eddie sighed, taking a long sip. He hadn’t notice how thirsty he was until the fresh beverage filled up his mouth.

“We did a pretty good job with the last boxes, didn’t we?”

Eddie hummed and sat the empty glass down. “Yeah, pretty good.”

“You can go now, if you want.” Sonia sighed, giving Eddie a knowing look. “Since you’ve been so good today.”

Eddie’s eyes lit up and he wrapped his arms around his mother’s neck, planting a big kiss on her cheek. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“Be back before dinner!” She called from behind him, but Eddie was already running.

He really hoped that Richie was going to be at the shore as he ran all the way down to Surfrider Beach.

He had never been so eager to meet up with Mike, Bill or Ben back in Derry. Sure, he was always happy when he got to see them, but his heart had never beat that way and his smile had never be that wide.  

“Hey.” Eddie breathed, trying to catch his breath after the run.

Richie was lying under the sun, wearing a pair of Hawaiian swimming trunks and sunglasses.

“Eds!” Richie grinned, clearly caught off guard. He sat up and Eddie sat down at the same time, smiling back at him.

“Don’t call me that.”

_Never stop calling me that._

“I thought you weren’t going to come today.”

“Yeah, I thought that too. My mom complained about me being out all the time and decided to keep me at home for the morning. I’m sorry I didn’t show up at the record store.”

Richie shrugged light heartedly and nudged his shoulder. “I’m just glad you’re here now.” He turned to dig in his backpack and Eddie frowned. “I made you a little something.”

“A gift?” Eddie blinked, with wide eyes.

“Not really a gift, but-” He finally found what he was looking for and handed it to Eddie.

It was a CD in a plastic cover, and Richie had written “June” on top of it. “You made me a playlist?”

No one had ever made him a playlist.

“You gotta start listening to nice music, Eds. Gentleman that I am, I’ve decided to help you.”

Eddie bit his lower lip and held that CD between his hands almost as if he was holding a baby bird with a broken wing. “How thoughtful of you.” He teased, looking up at him.

Eddie couldn’t tell if the pink on Richie’s cheeks was caused by the sun or something else.

Either way, he leaned closer and pressed a soft kiss to the older boy’s cheek, making him gasp in surprise.

“Thank you.”

 

* * *

 

“I remember you! You’re the guy that spilled the coffee all over himself!” The girl with the red hair said, pointing at Eddie.

“Yeah, because you threw your ball at me.” Eddie pointed out, folding his arms on his chest. The girl smiled wide and then offered him her hand.

“My name’s Beverly. This is Stanley.” She said, gesturing to the boy with blonde, curly hair and blue eyes that was standing next to her.

Malibu wasn’t really that big, after all. Not if he kept meeting the same people he had already met over and over again.

“Richie never shuts up about you.” Beverly said with a wink. Richie, on her other side, flushed red and elbowed her in the ribs, with wide eyes that kept looking between her and Eddie. “What? It’s true!”

“Shut the fuck up.” Richie hissed, glaring daggers at her.

“That’s what we tell you every time you start talking about him.” Stan deadpanned.

“What is this? A fucking mutiny?” Richie asked, looking between his friends.

Eddie was smiling, but he was also blushing.

He had got to the point where he was positive that he had a crush on Richie. A big, old fashioned, juvenile crush on Richie, because there was no other bloody explanation.

He liked pretty much everything about him, which was saying a lot, because Eddie’s standards were extremely high. He had always said that he wanted a boy who was graceful and well mannered and a proper gentleman and ended up crushing over a 22 years old walking disaster.

And it was beautiful.

Richie wasn’t like anyone Eddie had ever met before.

He knew that it probably didn’t mean much, because it wasn’t like he had met many people in Derry, but still, he knew that there was something different about Richie. Something beautifully different.

Eddie tucked a stray curl behind his ear and smiled up at Richi, in an almost shy way. “You talk to your friends about me?” He asked, biting his lower lip, while the smile still hadn’t left his face.

“No!” Richie said quickly. “I mean, yeah, but not that much.” He tried to sound smooth and confident, but the blush on his cheeks and the speed he was talking at gave him away. “They’re just trying to embarrass me, don’t mind them.”

“Don’t worry, Rich, you do a pretty amazing job at embarrassing yourself without our held.” Stand said, sipping on his soda. Eddie wondered how he managed to look that expressionless all the time, and yet pour so much sarcasm in everything he said.

It was remarkable.

“Okay, what the fuck, Stan? Shut up.” Richie glared again, rubbing the back of his neck. “You have to excuse him. Eds. He was never loved as a child. Or as an adult.”

Beverly snorted and Stan just rolled his eyes.

“That’s mean, Rich.” Eddie chuckled, slapping Richie’s arm playfully. “I think it’s cute that you talk about me.” He added, resting his head against Richie’s shoulder for a brief second.

“Really?” Richie asked, flushing even more and looking down at Eddie.

“Are you always like this? Because I don’t think I can handle being around this every time we hang out.” Stan groaned, gesturing in their direction as Richie wrapped his arm around Eddie’s shoulders, flipping his friend off.

_Like being friends, but not quite._

“I think they’re cute.” Beverly said with a happy smile as the four of them sat down on the edge of the pier, feet hanging in the air above the water.

“Skunks are cute, but you don’t want to be around them, do you?” Stan sighed, shaking his head.

“Did you just compare Richie and I to skunks?” Eddie frowned, vaguely amused by the entire conversation.

He was sitting next to Richie, who was sitting next to Stan, who was sitting next to Beverly.

“Have you ever smelled Richie’s feet? They smell just like s-” Before he could add anything else, Richie had pushed him down in the water.

Stan coughed and glared up at him, splashing them all and cursing against Richie.

“Sorry man, you had it coming.” Richie was bent in two, laughing. “Wait, no, don’t be like that!” He laughed even more when Stan started swimming away, but he managed to take his t-shirt off and hand it to Eddie. “Hold this for me, gorgeous?”

Before Eddie could even process what was going on, he had Richie’s warm shirt in his hands and the boy in question had just dived after Stan, swimming after him.

Eddie smiled and shook his head as the two of them started pushing each other down the surface, holding Richie’s yellow shirt in his hands and fidgeting with the soft fabric.

“They’re best friends.” Beverly said, shifting closer to him. She was wearing a pretty, red dress with floral prints that matched the shade of her hair.

“I figured.” Eddie nodded, turning his head to look at her. “Are you their best friend?”

“Yeah.” Beverly said, pulling her hair up in a ponytail. “The best friends I’ve ever had.”

“My best friends are in Maine.” Eddie said quietly. “I bet you’d like them. They’re funny and smart and…” Thinking about them made him miss them a little more. Maybe they were going to be up for a skype call later that night. “You’d like them. I’m sure you would.”

“I’m sure we would.” Beverly agreed. “You should invite them here. Ask them to visit you or something.”

Eddie nodded. He really should have, it wasn’t a bad idea. They would have fell in love with Malibu.

“Eds! Dive in, the water’s beautiful!” Richie called from under them, grinning up at him.

“Not a chance. I’ve got to be home in less than a hour.” Eddie said, swaying his feet in the air.

“Just call dear Sonia and tell her you’re staying out. Come on, please?” He pouted, giving Eddie his best puppy eyes.

“That’s the oldest trick in the book, Rich. I’m not falling for your pouty face.” He chuckled, shaking his head.

“What about me?” Richie asked, with a cheeky smile.

“What about you?”

“Are you falling for me?” He grinned, licking the salt away from his lips.

Bev giggled from where she was sitting next to Eddie, while he flushed red.

“Shut the hell up, Trashmouth.”

 

* * *

 

As Eddie watched Richie lay under the sun, right next to him, he couldn’t help but notice how astonishingly beautiful he was.

He wasn’t handsome like the guys on television or the models in the perfume ads. He wasn’t conventionally beautiful in a bimbo sort of way. Eddie remembered the time when he swooned over the actors and the models on the covers of the magazines, thinking  that he was never going to find someone who was that beautiful in real life.

He would have never expected real life to be so much better.

Richie had probably fallen asleep next to him. His lips were slightly parted and he was breathing evenly. Should have Eddie felt bad for staring? But how could he not stare when Richie looked like _that_.

His skin glowed like gold in the sun. The freckles on his shoulders looked like they had been painted there with a pointy brush. He had some on his chest as well, not quite as much, but Eddie figured that it must have been the long exposure to the sun. Those on his nose were darker than those on his cheeks. They made him look younger and innocent, at least when he was sleeping.

There was nothing innocent about Richie Tozier. Nothing innocent about his foul mouth, nothing innocent about the way his lips closed around the filter of his cigarette or the way he looked at the girls wearing bikinis on the beach.

There was nothing innocent about the way Richie looked at him.

His lashes were long and dark and brushed his cheeks, his hair was soft looking even though Eddie could see the tiniest salt crystals sticking to his curls.

Richie Tozier was beautiful, even when he wasn’t trying to.

Richie Tozier was probably the most beautiful boy Eddie had ever seen.

“Is there something interesting about my face?” Richie suddenly asked, grinning and opening his eyes slowly, looking at him through his lashes. “You were staring.”

“I was just admiring how ugly you are.” Eddie lied quickly, sticking his tongue out at him.

Richie laughed, rolling on his stomach and fumbling with his stuff. He slipped a cigarette between his lips and lit it up, inhaling the smoke and breathing it out with a groan.

“Those things will kill you.” Eddie said, shaking his head. “And not wearing sunscreen will too. Did you know that most melanomas are caused by being exposed to the sun? So basically your freckles are cancer dots.”

Richie laughed, turning his head to look at him. “Where the fuck did you read it?”

“I didn’t read it. My mom told me as she bought me a hundred dollars worth of sunscreen.” Eddie said, giving him a severe look.

“I’m Californian, Eds. I’ve been exposed to the sun since I was a spermatozoa.” Richie said easily, with an amused smile on his lips.

“Technically, you never were a spermatozoa. You were the combination of a spermatozoa and an ovum.” Eddie pointed out, folding his arms on his chest.

“I like it when you talk dirty to me.” Richie teased him, making Eddie roll his eyes.

“You’re such an idiot.” Eddie laid down and rolled onto his stomach as well, probably too close to Richie than it was adequate. Their shoulders were pressed together and, if Eddie had turned his head as well, he was sure that their noses would have brushed against each other.

The thought made something stir in his stomach and his cheeks feel hotter.

“You love me.”

_Like friends, but not quite._

_Some things are meant to be._

“I could never love an idiot.” Eddie smirked folding his arms and resting his cheek on top of them.

They were quiet for a couple of minutes. Richie kept smoking, while Eddie looked at him with wonder in his eyes, because Richie was funny and beautiful and his smile made Eddie’s stomach fill up with butterflies.

Eddie wondered how it was going to be when Richie had to go back to college, when summer was inevitably going to end.

“Rich?” Eddie said quietly, looking up at him.

“What is it, Eds?” Richie smiled and Eddie couldn’t help but smile back at him.

“Nothing.”

 

* * *

 

“Wait!” Eddie was laughing so hard his stomach was starting to hurt. He turned and ended up slamming against another glass. “Holy shit!” He laughed again, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Come on, Eds, you’re fucking slow.” Richie chuckled from god knew where.

This amusement park wasn’t like anything Eddie had ever seen before. The fairs they organized in Derry were usually small and had just a couple of attractions, but in California it was definitely a whole different matter.

A huge ferris wheel, dodgems, haunted houses, target practice and things Eddie couldn’t even name. The air was filled with the scent of the cotton candy, peanuts, popcorn and caramelized apples.

Eddie felt happy.

He was wandering around the hall of mirrors, trying to find the exit and laughing each time he bumped into a wall of glass. He couldn’t hear Stan and Bev anymore, so they had probably already found their way out.

“Where the hell are you?” Eddie asked, smiling as he looked around him. “Richie?” He narrowed his eyes and walked carefully, keeping a hand in front of him to make sure he wasn’t walking right into another mirror.

“Eds?” Eddie turned and saw Richie. He was grinning, wearing a stupid short sleeved shirt with bright flowers printed all over it.

Eddie’s heart swelled in his ribcage and his smile widened. “Fucker.” He laughed, walking towards him, but ending up against another mirror. “What the-?”

“Holy shit, you’re adorable.” Richie laughed, and suddenly Eddie felt a pair of arms around his waist picking him up from the floor.

“Put me down, you fucking giant!” Eddie kicked his legs in the air, gripping onto Richie’s arm.

Richie was chuckling in his ear, making Eddie shiver all over. “It was honestly so adorable watching you bang your head against every single mirror.”

Eddie’s feet touched the sticky floor again, but Richie didn’t let go of him. “It’s not fair, you left me alone.”

“Eds, I’ve been coming to this fair since I was old enough to stand. I know this mirrors by heart, so where would the fun have been if I led your way out of here?” Richie asked, taking his hands off of Eddie and allowing him to turn and look at him.

Eddie raised a hand, stroking his fingers against Richie’s cheek, almost as if he was making sure that it wasn’t a reflection. Richie leaned into his touch and Eddie wondered if he could hear his heart beat his way out of his chest.

If someone had told him, three years before, that he was going to end up in Malibu, stuck in a hall of mirrors, with the burning desire to taste the candy cotton on another boy’s tongue, he would have just laughed.

But there he was, surrounded by mirrors and glasses and Richie, Richie, Richie.

_Richie_.

He moved a little closer and Richie’s hands found their way to Eddie’s hips, backing him against a mirror as they stared into each other’s eyes. Eddie gasped, looking up at the older boy with wide eyes.

_Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me._

“Are you guys going to come out of there at some point? Or should we send a rescue team?” Beverly’s voice came loud and clear from outside, making Eddie blush and look away from Richie’s eyes.

“We should probably hurry up.” He said, trying to sound amused and not so worked up

“Yeah.” Richie pulled away from him, rubbing the back of his neck, and then he started running. “Good luck, Eddie Spaghetti!” He laughed, leaving Eddie behind.

“Fucker!”

 

* * *

 

“How about pink?” Beverly asked, making Eddie hum and give it a think.

“Isn’t pink too much?” He looked up at her, and Beverly shrugged, making her hair bounce around her cheeks.

“It’s just nail polish. It’s supposed to be colorful.” She pointed out, and Eddie smiled.

“Alright then.”

They were sitting under the gazebo of a bar on the beach, a can of coke in front of the both of them and a bag of chips in the middle. Richie and Stan were in the water, splashing around the waves on their surfboards, bickering so loud that Eddie was sure everyone could hear them.

“So… what’s going on between you two?” Beverly asked as she started painting Eddie’s nails, with a knowing smirk on her lips. “Have you kissed yet?”

Eddie flushed red and choked on the sip of coke he was drinking. “W-what?” He coughed, shaking his head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Yes you do, come on, don’t play innocent with me. You guys are so obvious.” She laughed, looking up at him and wiggling her thick eyebrows. “Besides, you’re all Richie talks about when you’re not around.”

“Really?” Eddie asked shily, smiling and biting his lower lip.

“Really. It’s so annoying. I mean, I love you, but if I hear him go on about how pretty you are or about how much he wants to kiss every single freckle on your body one more time I will go fucking nuts.” She said casually, almost as if she wasn’t dropping a bomb.

“Did he really said that?”

“Jesus, Eddie, can’t you see the way he looks at you? It’s so painfully obvious.”

Eddie knew that there was nothing friendly about the way they looked at each other, especially after what had happened in the hall of mirrors. Sometimes he found himself staring, wondering how those hands on his hips would have felt without the fabric of his shirt between their skin.

He had lost count of how many times he had gripped himself at night, under the sheets, breathing ragged and eyes squeezed shut, imagining Richie’s hands, his lips, his eyes and the taste of salt on his skin after a day spent at the beach.

“I think I like him.” He admitted quietly, making Beverly smile as she painted his pinky finger.

“You think?”

“I mean, I know I do. But…” He sighed, biting his lower lip.

“But?”

“You guys are my only friends here, and I love you. I don’t want to screw everything up and end up ruining our friendship.”

“What are you two whispering about?” Richie asked, flopping on the chair next to Eddie. He was dripping wet and he had his beach towel around his shoulders and Eddie most certainly didn’t stare as his chest as he sat down. “Are you trying to steal my man, Marsh?”

“I’m not your man.” Eddie stuck his tongue out at Richie, making him laugh. The older boy reached for Eddie’s drink and stole a sip of it, and Eddie let him without saying a word, because watching Richie’s lips close around the straw was already too much to focus on.

“Don’t worry, Tozier, he’s all yours.” Beverly winked, putting the nail polish away.

Eddie decide to ignore it and just turned to Richie, smiling and showing him his freshly painted nails. “What do you think?”

“Lovely.” Richie grinned, giving Eddie his coke back and shifting closer to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Eddie leaned into his touch, shivering a little at the coldness of Richie’s wet skin, but resting his head against his shoulder anyway. “I was thinking about going to play some music later, see if I can collect some money.”

“At the beach or in town?” Stan asked, crossing his legs and putting a couple of chips in his mouth.

“Town. Are you guys coming?” Stan and Bev hummed and nodded, while Eddie looked up at Richie.

“I’ve got to go to the mall with my mom later.” Eddie reminded him, and Richie groaned. “Next time, I promise.”

Eddie didn’t miss the look of disappointment on Richie’s face, nor the knowing looks that Stan and Bev were sharing.

“I’ll sing a song for you, my love.” Richie promised, teasing him and making him blush.

“You’re such a turd.”

An hour later, Eddie was trying to choose between two different brands of orange juice when Sonia egged him to hurry up. he sighed and chose the one without additional sugar, running back to his mother and putting it in the basket.

“You look good, Eddie bear. Happy.” She noticed, giving him a puzzled smile.

“Yeah?” They were in line and Eddie couldn’t wait to be back to town, hoping that Richie would still be playing on the street. “I just like having new friends. They’re great.”

“Are you always careful, Eddie? You know how mean people can be sometimes.”

“I know.” Eddie’s memories ran back to being shoved in the hallways, right against the lockers, being called names and made fun of in front of the entire school. He shook his head, pushing those thoughts away. “They’re not like that. They’re great.”

Sonia hummed and glanced at him. “As long as you don’t end up hurt, sweetie. This is a new start, remember?”

Eddie remembered, and it really did feel like one.

He wondered if his dad would have liked his new friends.

He wondered if he could have talked to his dad about how he felt toward Richie.

After they had went back home and put all the groceries away, Eddie kissed his mother’s cheek and hurried outside. He knew exactly where Richie was going to be if he was still playing, and he ended up being right.

Sort of.

Richie was leaning against the wall, in the exact same spot he had seen him playing the first time, except that he wasn’t playing. Bev and Stan weren’t even there. There was a girl. A girl with long, dark hair and blue eyes.

Eddie stopped on his tracks and stared as the two of them laughed and playfully pushed each other.

Eddie saw the light in Richie’s eyes, the way he smile stretched so wide.

He saw the way his arm swung around the girl’s shoulders, tugging her closer.

He felt like his new, little, happy world crumbled right in front of him, shattering to the ground in a million tiny pieces.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid._

 

* * *

 

In his life, Eddie had only had three crushes, and only one of them had been serious.

He had had a crush on Betty Ripsom, a girl from his History class, when he was in fifth grade and everyone had started talking about crushes. The boys talked about girls, the girls talked about boys. Eddie couldn’t see what was so interesting about girls, especially about their boobs since, in fifth grade, they were all more or less flat as desks.

He crushed on Betty because he felt like he was supposed to. She used to sit next to him in class and she always let him borrow her glittery pens. Eddie figured that, if he had to like someone, it should have been her. He wasn’t interested in her nonexistent boobs or her lips or her hair or her butt like all the other boys said, he was interested in her glittery pens.

So, maybe, Eddie’s first crush were Betty’s pens, not Betty.

When he turned 12 he realised that he wasn’t interested in girls at all. He found much more appealing sitting in PE class and watch the other boys run around the field in their shorts. He didn’t see why he should have liked a girl when boys where so pretty.

At 14 years old, boys stopped being pretty and turned into puberty monsters. They had pimples and awkward mustaches and suddenly Eddie wasn’t so sure he liked them. They became more vulgar and mean and, in general, stupid.

Bill was Eddie’s second crush because he wasn’t stupid. He was handsome and his skin was clear and his hair looked red in the sun. But, thinking about it, Eddie wasn’t sure he had a proper crush on him. He had never thought about kissing Bill or anything like that, he just admired him a lot because Bill was smart and charismatic and, despite his stutter, he was absolutely charming.

Maybe Eddie wanted to be Bill, not being with Bill.

Eddie’s third crush was a boy he had met in high school. His name was Trevor, he was popular and funny and good looking. Eddie had written his name all over his text books and he listened to love songs thinking about it. They used to make out in the janitor room between classes, which made Eddie feel light and a little reckless.

Trevor fucked him in his bedroom while his parents weren’t home, then told him that he had to leave. After that, he stopped talking to Eddie altogether and Eddie had ripped every single page he had written Trevor’s name on.

Richie was Eddie’s fourth crush.

Richie came after the glittery pens, the awkward friend-crush and the asshole who used him. Richie was charming and bright and funny and handsome and smart and Eddie felt like a lovesick idiot each time he was around him.

But Richie flirted with girls, he laughed with them and wrapped his arms around their shoulders, so maybe none of that mattered.

“What’s up with you, Eds?” Richie asked, frowning.

Eddie moved his feet in the water. He was straddling Richie’s surfboard and he hadn’t spoke that much the whole day. He couldn’t stop thinking about how silly and naive he had been, trusting him like that and letting himself fall for his facade.

Richie was just like all the mean boys he had met before. He had made fun of him, teased him, and then moved onto something more interesting.

Someone more interesting.

“Nothing.” Eddie hissed, refusing to look up at him. “I want to go home, let’s go back.”

Richie blinked and looked down, thinking about what to say. “Are you mad at me?” He asked carefully. “Because if you are I must say, there’s a rule around here, you know? No one can get mad at Richie, especially the cute boys. I’m sorry, I didn’t make the law.” He tried to joke, but Eddie only glared at him.

“Do you ever fucking shut up?” He hissed, and he clearly saw a flash of hurt in Richie’s eyes.

He refused to feel bad about it.

“What’s going on, Eds?” Richie tried again, making Eddie scoff.

“Stop calling me that, okay? I hate it.” _I hate you_.

Richie looked at him for a couple of seconds without saying anything. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“This!” Eddie exclaimed. “This is wrong! Why are you wasting your time with me when you could be hanging around with that girl?”

“What girl?” Richie frowned, looking genuinely clueless, which only made Eddie scoff again.

“The girl you were all over yesterday. The pretty one. I saw you.”

Richie looked like he was trying to recall and, when he finally did, he started laughing.

He fucking _laughed_.

“Oh my god.” He said, shaking his head and wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes.

“What’s so fucking funny? You’re an asshole!” Eddie shoved him and Richie lost balance, falling to the side and into the water. When he came up on the surface again, he was still laughing. “Fine, keep laughing. Fuck you, Richie.”

“No, no, Eds, I’m sorry.” Richie said, trying to stop laughing and failing miserably. “It’s just… It’s cute that you’re jealous, I mean it. I’m flattered, baby, but you really don’t need to get jealous over my sister.”

_What?_

Eddie blinked, looking down at him with wide eyes and his mouth slightly agape.

His _sister_?

Eddie knew Richie had a little sister but, for some reason, despite knowing she was 17 years old, he had imagined her as a little kid running around with a balloon in her hand and her mouth dirty with chocolate. He sure as hell hadn’t picture a tall, gorgeous teenager with a cascade of black curls, piercing blue eyes and shorts so short they could have easily been panties.

“Fuck, Eds, you should see your face right now.” Richie laughed, shaking his head.

Eddie was beyond embarrassed and humiliated. He had just put up a scene because he was jealous of his crush talking to his sister. Consequentially, he had also just admitted his crush.

He wanted to dive into the ocean and let it swallow him down.

“Don’t say a fucking word.” Eddie hissed, while Richie kept grinning.

“Come here.”

“Seriously, Richie, shut u-”

Richie grabbed his wrist and pulled him in the water, making Eddie gasp for air when he broke the surface.

Before he could even open his eyes again, or even rub them to take the salt away, Richie’s lips were pressing against his own and one of his arms was secured around his waist.

Eddie didn’t even have to think about it: he winded an arm around Richie’s neck and used his free hand to cup his cheek as their lips slid against each other and their tongues pushed into each other’s mouth.

With his free arm, Richie was holding onto the surfboard to keep them both afloat, and Eddie was so grateful for it, because it allowed him to wrap his legs around Richie’s waist and hold tighter onto him.

“You got jealous of my sister.” Richie mumbled against his lips, gasping when Eddie bit his lower lip and then sucked it into his mouth.

“Shut the fuck up, I didn’t know it was your sister.” Eddie hissed, burying his hands into Richie’s gorgeous curls and licking the salt away from his lips.

“Next time, instead of getting mad, just fucking ask me.” Richie breathed against his lips, looking in his eyes and making Eddie feel hot.

“Just fucking kiss me.”

 

* * *

 

Richie’s house wasn’t as he had expected it. For some reason, just as he had pictured his sister like a screaming toddler, he had imagined Richie’s house to be like the one he lived in back in Derry: small, on two levels, between twenty identical houses with the same, identical front yard.

It was nothing like that.

Richie’s house was enormous.

It was big and modern and freshly painted and decorated with exquisite taste. The furniture was polished, the windows were spotless and everything smelled like jasmine and lavender. Eddie had never seen such a beautiful house before, and he had only seen the living room and the kitchen so far.

Richie’s father, Wentworth, was a Dentist and apparently he had a lot of celebrity clients. Richie told him that he whitened Jennifer Lawrence’s teeth every two months and Eddie almost swooned at the notion.

So yeah, the Tozier family had a lot of money.

Eddie was a little jealous.

There was a big pool in the backyard, where they were currently spending their time.

Stan had fallen asleep inside of an inflatable doughnut, wearing a pair of sunglasses and frowning even while he was sleeping. Eddie found it funny. Beverly was sitting between Richie’s legs and he was braiding her hair, a little messily, but Bev seemed to appreciate the effort. They were giggling and talking about something that only them knew, and Eddie smiled in their direction every now and then, meeting Richie’s gaze.

Eddie was lying on a cot, which was extremely comfortable and soft. He had added the playlist Richie made for him on his ipod and it was basically the only thing he listened to.

_I never came to the beach or stood by the ocean_

_I never sat by the shore under the sun with my feet on the sand_

_But you brought me here_

_And I’m happy that you did_

He smiled at the lyrics and closed his eyes, relaxing under the sun, almost as if he didn’t have a single care in the world. He was just about to fall asleep when a pair of soft lips kissed his, making him feel like he was melting, like a chocolate left under the sun.

“You look like a lazy cat.” Richie said, pulling one of the headphones off.

“I feel like a lazy cat.” Eddie grinned, reaching up to tug at one of Richie’s curls.

The taller boy climbed on top of the cot, pushing Eddie’s knees apart and lying down in the cradle of his hips, resting his head against Eddie’s chest.

_But here I am_

_Next to you_

_The sky is more blue_

_In Malibu_

Eddie sighed contentedly, playing with the warm and soft curls on the nape of Richie’s neck and rubbing circles on his skin with his fingertips. Richie wore the headphone he had taken off of Eddie’s ear and smiled when he recognised the song, looking up at him.

Eddie’s heart swelled in his chest. He smiled at him and stroked his fingers over Richie’s cheek and lips, mouthing the lyrics.

_We are just like the waves that flow back and forth_

_Sometimes I feel like I'm drowning and you're there to save me_

_And I wanna thank you with all of my heart_

_It's a brand new start_

_A dream come true_

_In Malibu_

“That’s so horrifying.” Richie and Eddie turned their heads to their left, where Holly, Richie’s sister, was gagging.

“Do you even know how to spell ‘horrifying’, asshole?” Richie said, flipping his sister off.

Eddie laughed quietly from under him, pausing the music. “Hi, Holly.” He said with a smile.

She was wearing a pink sundress and her hair was tied up in a neat ponytail. “Hi, Eddie.” Holly said, ignoring her brother and bending down to kiss Eddie on the cheek. “How do you put up with this thing?” She asked, gesturing in the general direction of Richie.

“Fuck off Holly.” Richie hissed, grinning up at her. “Don’t you have anywhere else to go?”

“I like to annoy you. That’s the main reason why I was born.”

“It sure is.” Richie groaned, standing up and leaving Eddie with a pout on his lips.

“Mom wants to know if your friends are coming to the barbecue.” She said, rolling her eyes and then giggling when Richie easily picked her up.

 “What barbecue?” Eddie asked, sitting up.

“The Toziers throw a barbecue every year for the fourth of July. It’s kind of a big, fancy thing, but the food’s great.” Beverly explained, while Richie and Holly kept wrestling with each other.

“I don’t know, I should ask my mom.” Eddie shrugged. Beverly sat down next to him and wrapped her arms around Eddie.

“Bring her too. Right, Rich?” She asked, looking up at the siblings.

“Sure! My heart would sink if dearest Sonia wasn’t there.” Richie said dramatically, making Eddie scoff and roll his eyes.

“Put me down, you disgusting idiot!” Holly laughed, and Richie instantly dropped her in the pool.

“You didn’t specify that you wanted to be dropped on the _ground_.” Richie pointed out, grinning.

Eddie couldn’t believe he didn’t see that they were related right away. They were really similar to each other: the same bone structure, the same hair and the same loud, oh so loud laugh.

“I’ll ask her, okay?” Eddie promised, standing up and smiling at Richie. “A barbecue sounds nice.”

Richie cupped his cheeks and pressed their lips together.

_It’s a brand new start_

_A dream come true_

_In Malibu._

 

**Author's Note:**

> Leave me a comment and make my day? :)


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